The House of Representatives approved a $60.8 billion package of aid for the embattled country of Ukraine Saturday, ending a months-long attempt by Republicans to leverage the Ukraine money to extract concessions on border security from the White House.
The overwhelmingly bipartisan vote, 311 to 112, was never in doubt even as the path to get to the vote was a long and circuitous one beginning in September of last year.
The bill is one in a four-part, $95 billion package, which also includes $26.4 billion in military aid for Israel and $8.1 billion for Taiwan and other Asian allies. Another bill in the package also allows for confiscation of official Russian government assets in the U.S. and requires social media app TikTok to divest its U.S. operations from its Chinese owners or face a ban.
It heads now to the Senate, which passed a very similar package without the Russian asset seizure and Tiktok divestiture language, in February. While opponents of the aid to Ukraine are expected to try to delay passage, the Senate vote in February had 70 backers.
President Joe Biden has signaled he will sign the bill once it clears Congress. That would put an end to a fight Republicans picked in late September, when then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) jettisoned a smaller $6 billion Ukraine aid package from a stopgap spending bill, choosing to tie its passage to the White House and Democrats agreeing to border security changes.
After a few months’ standoff, Republican Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) tried to negotiate a bipartisan deal on Ukraine aid and border security — only to see it fall apart. GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump helped sink the bill by posting his disapproval of it on social media, causing Senate Republicans to balk.
The Senate bill funding Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan aid sat untouched by House Republicans for months — until Iran’s attack on Israel on April 13, which kicked efforts to pass Israel aid back into high gear.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who had held off action on Ukraine aid, reversed course Wednesday, saying, “I would rather send bullets to Ukraine than American boys.”
To get around immigration hardliners within his own party, who opposed advancing the package without a border crackdown, Johnson turned to Democrats to both get it on the House floor and to pass.
That choice to work with them might have major repercussions for the speaker. After the vote to advance the new package bill Friday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) picked up the support of another member, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), for her call for a vote on whether Johnson should remain in the speaker’s chair. With Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Greene’s group has the numbers to depose Johnson if a vote came and no Democrats supported Johnson.
On the battlefield, Ukrainian officials have blamed Congress’ delays for recent losses, as Russian attackers have pressed the advantage. In February, Ukraine lost a long-held eastern outpost named Avdiivka, a development the White House blamed directly on an artillery shortage. And Kyiv lost a major power station when it ran out of air defense missiles, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The delay may also have sent encouragement to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Democrats say. With the West’s attention drawn to the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, Putin has been able to step up the tempo of drone and missile attacks on Ukraine.
Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said the final package was essentially the same as what the Senate sent over in February, with the backing of 70 votes there.
“I’m sorry that we didn’t take it up immediately because I think we sent a muddled message to the international community about the resolve that this country had for defending freedom,” he said Friday.